i let him steal into my melancholy heart
by giucorreias
Summary: After the Green Guy fiasco, Bruce Banner built a force-field around the ruins of a forgotten castle. One day, when researching a weird signal for SHIELD, Tony Stark gets locked inside. Tony/Bruce. Beauty and the beast AU.


Somehow Tony found himself in a castle.

Maybe "ruins" would be a more exact term. They were a bundle of stone-like walls, some of them quite steady, but most of them broken down and destroyed, all of it surrounded by an invisible force-field he had no idea how to disable, or how he had managed to enter it in the first place. His armor was not functioning, either, and the force-field was probably jamming his signals, because he couldn't communicate with JARVIS, or the SHIELD team.

Though that was not the _worst_ part. Stranded on a weird place, locked up by unknown technology? Piece of cake. Unable to contact JARVIS? He could deal with that. What he couldn't deal with was, undoubtedly, the huge green monster the force-field was probably meant to be keeping inside.

The green monster took a piece of one of the walls—and _that_ explained why the place was in ruins—and threw it at his general direction. Tony cursed, loudly, and ducked, just barely avoiding being hit. The huge- projectile? hit the force-field with a loud noise, and was thrown back, almost hitting him again.

Tony tried to fly away, and the exercise was made more difficult because of the malfunction. He needed to find a safe place to take a look at what was wrong with his armor, but knew that he wouldn't be safe inside the ruins, if the monster could break the stones as if they were- well, he was having trouble figuring out something he'd be able to break with the same ease.

The monster took the same boulder and Tony prepared to duck again, but he ended up not needing to. The monster didn't throw it at his general direction again, but at the same place he had before. Was it blind? No, it couldn't be. It had found the boulder easily enough where it had landed. It couldn't be guided by sound, either, as his armor wasn't exactly silent.

If it wasn't trying to attack him, then what-? _Oh_.

_Oh_!

"You can't disable a force-field by hitting it, green guy!" said Tony, and the monster looked at him. At least not one that was well-built, and this one looked like a technological marvel. It needed to be, if its objective was to keep such a strong monster inside. The monster looked at him, and Tony could see the anger at its eyes.

"Smash!" it said. His voice was harsh, deep. For a moment, Tony thought 'this is where my mouth kills me', but the monster didn't attack him. It took the boulder again, and threw it at the same place. Every time it rebounded back, it took it again and it threw it again. Over and over. Tirelessly.

Figuring he was safe enough for now, Tony took his armor off. He could almost hear Pepper yelling at him for being irresponsible, but Tony knew that he had little chances of beating the monster with his armor in that state. Hell, even with a fully functioning armor he'd probably have a very small chance. It looked too strong.

He started running the diagnosis program, and it would take at least twenty minutes for it to finish finding out what was wrong. Tony sighed, and decided he might as well take that time to examine the field. He got close to it, but besides the noise it made whenever the monster hit it with the boulder (and the fact the boulder rebounded), there was no indication there was anything there.

It was weird, seeing nothing in front of him but knowing he wouldn't be able to simply walk out. He took one step, and then another, and then raised his hand to touch the field. He had felt nothing when he entered it, hadn't even seen the ruins until he was inside. Perhaps it was mirrored? He applied pressure against the field, but nothing happened. It wasn't a solid wall, exactly, nor was it like touching one. It was more like… his hand would move up until a point where it would start coming back.

It was _beautiful_.

The monster finally tired of his stone-throwing game, and looked towards him. That's when he saw the armor in the floor. He approached, his steps seeming almost reticent for such big feet. He crouched, and for a moment Tony feared he would destroy the armor, but he simply neared one of his ears towards the middle of what would be his… chest?

"Dead?" it asked, and its face contorted to something that could almost be called _grief_.

Tony sighed. The smartest thing to do would be to let the monster believe he was dead, hide, and work out a way of leaving. Tony was a genius, but what was one more stupid decision to add to the huge list of stupid decisions Tony had ever made?

"Hey, Big Guy, I'm here," he said, and the monster looked at him.

"Tin Man?" it asked, and Tony chuckled.

"Yep, that's me." The monster looked a little confused, and looked at him and at the armor, his eyebrows creased. Tony chuckled again. "This is my armor. It's like… a piece of clothing. Do you know clothes? You can take them off."

The monster seemed to understand. He got up again, and then looked back at what was supposed to be the force-field.

"Tin Man stuck too," it said.

"Seems like it," Tony sighed. "It seems we're going to be cellmates, big guy, so you might as well call me by my name. I'm Tony." He smiled, and offered his hand. The monster cocked his head, looking at it. "You're supposed to offer me your name in return. Do you have a name?"

"Hulk!" it said, hitting its chest.

"Well, Hulk, nice to meet you. Mind showing me around?"

"Hulk tired," it said, starting to walk away. Tony looked behind, and his armor had already finished running the diagnosis program. Tony shrugged, and then followed the Hulk. His armor was not going anywhere.

Hulk walked around the ruins for a few minutes, until he saw something that made him satisfied. He sat down, then laid down, then closed his eyes. Not one minute later, he was snoring loudly.

Well, _that_ was anticlimactic.

Though Hulk did say he was tired.

He was about to retreat back to his armor when he noticed the Hulk was becoming less green. He frowned, then approached. After a few seconds, it started to shrink. One minute later, and the huge green monster was now a very normal, very _naked_ human being, and Tony new it said something about himself that the first thing he thought was 'attractive', the second was 'interesting' and the third was 'i wonder how this works'.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Bruce was used to waking up in all manner of places inside the force-field, though waking up _inside the castle_ and _in a bed_ was very much new. He looked around, still groggy, and it took him almost a whole minute to realize he was _dressed_. There was no way this was the other guy's doing, which was worrying. Was he losing the memories from right after the transformation, too? He bit his lip. He closed his eyes again, just for a minute, and then sighed. He had to get up and see if the garden was salvageable, and if any of the food he had in store was still in a condition to be eaten.

He didn't know how long the other guy had been… well, _been_. So it could have been an hour or a month or an year. The room he was in had no windows, either, so he couldn't even know what time of the day it was. He also had to investigate what had set the other guy off, the disturbance on the force-field. The fact he was still inside meant it couldn't have been a malfunction, or at least not a huge one.

He sighed again, and then hid his face on the pillow.

Sometimes, it was very hard to see a reason to get up. That day, though, it was important, even if only to check the world outside would still be safe.

He forced himself out of bed, one foot after the other.

"Not that hard, was it?" he muttered to himself, opening one of the drawers in the room to search for clothing. They were thinning out, and soon he'd have no options of what to wear. He'd have to forgo a roof, at some point, too, since the other guy tended to destroy the castle when he was angry. And someday he'd be unable to keep growing food. Perhaps he'd die of hunger. Could the other guy starve to death, or would he simply become a ravenous monster, doomed to live inside the field for the rest of his days?

Bruce wondered if the other guy worried about that. Had he any worries at all, besides smashing things for his own amusement? Bruce doubted it.

He went down the steps, one by one, until he ended up in the kitchens. He opened the cabinets, and was surprised to find there was still food. In fact, there was more food then he remembered storing, before. He pursed his lips. He took an apple, closed the cabinet, and then moved outside. The garden was… cared for. It had been watered recently, at least. He took a few lemongrass leaves, and then went back to the kitchen, hoping to prepare tea.

It was only when he went back that he noticed the main table was already occupied with something. It looked like… well, it looked like someone was trying to fix an electronic red thing he had never seen before in his life. He looked at it, curiously. It was a sort of armor, but Bruce couldn't guess its purpose. There were tools on the table, as if he had expected to get back to it soon, and it was not a work in progress. Well, it was obviously broken, but that implied it had been ready for use before.

He couldn't have built that in a few weeks. Nor, he thought, months. He'd need years, especially since his access to new technology was limited. What the hell had happened to make him lose so much time of his memories? He was lost to his thoughts, his hand still hovering the armor, when he heard steps behind him and then a voice.

"I'd thank you not to touch that." Bruce turned to face the voice and found a man perhaps on his forties, short hair starting to grey on the sides, a well-cut goatee. He was wearing a Black Sabbath black T-Shirt and what looked like expensive jeans.

"Who are you and what are you doing _here_?" Bruce asked, and his voice came out a bit too high. Though the presence of another person certainly explained the weird things that Bruce had seen. He was probably the one who had set off the other guy, and probably the one who restocked the food and watered the garden. The armor had to be his, too.

Internally, Bruce was very relieved.

"That's not a very polite way of treating a guest," the man said.

"You _were_ rude first," he answered, and then winced at how childish that sounded. "Well, sorry. It's been some time since I last talked to people. Besides myself, that is."

The man chuckled. It was a surprising sound. He sat down at the table and went back to working on the armor, his forehead creased in concentration. Bruce took his leaves and started working on a counter, instead.

"To answer your question," he said after a moment, "My name is Tony, and I am here entirely by accident."

"That's impossible," Bruce said, turning to him. "The field was specifically built to ignore human readings. You wouldn't be able to get in if you tried, least of all by accident."

"You built the field?" The man jumped from where he was sat, and then rounded the table and sat beside him on the counter. "It's marvelous! How does it work? It's an electromagnetic field, isn't it? I knew it! Well, guessed, but that's not the case. How did you put it in place? Is it remote? Is it _portable_? Can we disable it from the inside?"

"Maybe we should go with one question at a time," Bruce said, and when he turned to the man—Tony—he had a breathtaking smile of his face. Bruce sighed, because it had been too long since he had seen another person, and it was too cliche to feel attracted to a smile.

"Can we disable it from the inside?"

Bruce offered the man an approving smile.

"No, we can't. But if we find out why the field didn't bypass your reading, then we might be able to modify it so you can walk out."

"I might have an idea of why that happened," Tony said, sheepish, pointing at his chest.

"That's even better," Bruce said, distractedly, while putting the water to boil on the stove. "It'll make everything a lot easier. What's this idea you have?"

"The arc reactor."

"What's that?"

There was no answer. Bruce looked back, and Tony was looking outside the window, to the sky. Bruce shrugged, and went back to his tea. He could relate to having a few issues, after all. The last person who'd judge Tony on anything was Bruce.

"Give me a few hours to… reacquaint." Bruce said, then. Tony was still looking out the window, but seemed to pay enough attention to what was being said. "Then we'll work on how to get you out. Ok?"

"Sounds good," Tony answered.

**.**

**.**

**.**

That afternoon, they started doing _Science_ together.

**.**

**.**

**.**

It was hard work.

Well, not entirely. Bruce hadn't done anything like that in a few years, besides gardening (which was work, but not mind work) and the occasional maintenance to the field, so it took him some time to get his brain to work again the way it had to, to remember how to quickly solve the equations and how to think with the programming logic. It was good, though. Good in a way he hadn't known in some time.

Since before he built the field, and that was probably Tony's influence.

The man was funny. Interesting. Smart. He had a dark sense of humor that matched Bruce's own. He was also gorgeous, though that was the least interesting thing about him. Bruce loved to hear him talking about Pepper, JARVIS, Rhodey, Happy, his robots; and Tony loved chatting away while working. It should have been distracting, but it wasn't, not really.

For the first time in a long, _long_ time, Bruce found reasons to wake up in the morning, to smile, to joke. On one occasion, when Tony was telling him of one of his birthday parties at the MIT, Bruce startled himself with his own laugh.

It was a good feeling, shadowed sometimes by the reality that at some point they'd achieve their goal and Tony would leave.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Whenever Bruce thought about that, about being alone again, he could feel the Other Guy raging on the tips of his control.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Why did you lock yourself inside?" Tony asked at some point, while meddling with the electromagnetic pulses. It was what had brought him there, and he reasoned that fixing it so that they wouldn't be emitted anymore would keep Bruce safer. Inside, he knew he was stalling the inevitable. He had to leave at some point.

Not for himself. For himself, he'd stay longer (though not forever, because he missed JARVIS and his robots and his technology in the Tower); but for Pepper and Rhodey and the people who loved him and didn't know what had happened.

The work on the force-field was almost done. Maybe it'd need one or two tweaks so they'd guarantee the Big Guy wasn't able to leave too, but that was it.

"Did you happen to miss the huge rage monster while on holiday here?" Bruce asked, voice too light for the subject they were discussing. Tony loved that about him, the fact he could joke about serious things without making them less serious.

"He was a lot more polite to me than you were when we first met," Tony argued. "He was very sad when he thought I had died, too." He lifted two fingers.

Bruce didn't answer. Tony gave him a minute before looking up, and Bruce was looking straight at him, his brown eyes deep and so, so _sad_. In spite of himself, Tony licked his lips. Bruce looked away, a blush creeping on his cheeks. Tony smiled.

"I'm too dangerous to be left roaming free outside," he said finally.

"Out of the two people in this room, Brucie, I'm the one people called 'the merchant of death'. You can't beat that."

"You can stop being the merchant of death, Tony, but I can't stop being the other guy."

"But you can control yourself very well. You have only turned into the Hulk once, and that was because there was an explosion with the armor and all he did was check on me."

"He could have just as easily hurt you."

"The fact here is that he _didn't_."

"Drop it, Tony."

Tony sighed, going back to the pulses. He would miss Bruce dearly, he knew. Despite the fact that it had been—three, four months?—, the man seemed to understand him like no one else. He could keep up to him, intellectually, didn't mind his rambling, didn't take offense very easily, and answered his jokes with jokes of his own.

Bruce was—

Perfect.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Bruce was perfect and Tony was falling in love with him.

**.**

**.**

**.**

That morning, when Bruce woke up, he didn't want to get up.

He should have been used to that by now, after years of it, but a few months of happiness—had it been happiness?—had made him weaker. He sighed, searched for his glasses, put it on his face, and got up.

There was a tinge of green on his arm, that he forced down.

_Not now, Hulk, not now. _He wanted to remember his last moments with Tony. _Please, just let me remember my last moments with him. _

Bruce didn't know if the Hulk understood him, if he could hear him think. He was still growling, inside, he could still feel him nag at his control, but the green of his skin was gone. It was good enough for him.

He got down, into the kitchen, and the armor was on the table.

It reminded him of that first day, months before, when he had met Tony. He hadn't known, then, that he'd hand the man his heart. That he'd get the power to hurt him so. And yet, it was Bruce's own doing, was it not? Tony had tried to convince him to leave a lot of times.

But Bruce couldn't. Because he loved Tony, he couldn't. He'd never forgive himself if he hurt him accidentally. He'd never forgive the other guy if he killed Tony in rage.

Bruce could stand a broken heart if he knew Tony was safer, so far away from him.

"'Morning, Brucie."

"Hello," he answered. Bruce was too coward to look at Tony, so he went to the stove to boil his water instead.

They stayed in silence the rest of the day. Bruce didn't know what to say, and Tony was probably busy making sure he hadn't forgotten anything. Whenever he could, Bruce stole a glance at Tony when the man wasn't looking. He'd never see him again, so he tried to commit him to memory.

It was night when Tony finally donned his armor.

It was almost dawn when he left.

**.**

**.**

**.**

The last thing Tony saw of Bruce was his skin getting greener.

**.**

**.**

**.**

The Hulk called for the Tin Man to come back for 72 hours before he lost his voice.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Bruce spent a whole week in bed before the Hulk took over and forced him to eat.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Is this an intervention?" Tony said, a curl of a smile on his face. Pepper had her hands at her waist, and Rhodey had his arms crossed.

"Tony, we're worried. You disappear for six months on a forest in a god-forsaken country, SHIELD has no idea what happened to you, you come back and we think 'he's ok!', but then you lock yourself away in your workshop for a whole month!"

"You have to admit, this is better than last time."

"Tony!" she said, her face red. "This is not funny! You need to talk to us, you need to let us help you. You know we're here for you."

"Look, Pep. I'm ok. You saw for yourself, still alive and all that jazz, not a single suicidal tendency in sight. I'm just working on a project."

"You're unbelievable!" She said, storming out. "Talk to him, Colonel!"

Rhodey sat down next to Tony, and everything was quiet for a moment.

"Tell me about what you're building," he asked.

Tony smiled.

"It's a portable electromagnetic field programmed to keep inside someone with high levels of gamma radiation on their blood."

"That's… oddly specific."

"I know."

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Eureka!" Tony yelled, but Bruce wasn't around to smile at his antics.

Soon, he thought. Soon.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Tony feared Bruce had changed his field's configurations so as to keep him outside. Fortunately, Bruce didn't. If it was in hopes he would come back eventually—even if they had never actually talked about this—or if because he just didn't have the time, Tony couldn't know.

"Honey, I'm home!" he said.

There was a growl, and then a loud noise, and then a _very naked_ Bruce showed up. Very naked and very thin and very pale.

"Tony, what-"

"Are you sick?"

"-are you doing here?"

"I finished my question first, so you answer first." Bruce rolled his eyes at him, and Tony smiled because he had _missed_ that.

"Let me dress something first," he said. "And then we'll talk."

The castle was even more wrecked than when he left, and Bruce walked carefully around the broken walls until he entered what used to be Tony's room, when he had stayed there. When Bruce emerged again, he was wearing his Black Sabbath T-Shirt.

It was a good look on him.

Tony smirked.

They sat around the kitchen's table, and the kitchen was also half-destroyed. Tony wondered what else the Big Guy had destroyed because of his departure, and it made him sad. Angry, at himself.

"Tell me what brought you back."

"You first."

"No, I am not sick."

"I built an electromagnetic field around my Tower."

"You built- why?"

"You're a smart guy, Bruce Banner. Guess."

Bruce cocked his head, and the motion reminded him of the Hulk, from all those months back. A long minute went by, and Bruce said nothing.

"I have no idea."

"I want you to move into my tower with me."

"But- _why_?"

Tony sighed, and then got up. He rounded the table, as he had done many times before, to talk to Bruce about something. Except, this time, he didn't sit at his side, didn't stop short of his personal bubble. He did the opposite: he crowded his space, touched his cheekbones, and kissed him.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"The other guy might show up and break your tower."

"I'll build a new one."

"He might hurt the people inside."

"We'll put you on the last floor."

"He might _hurt_ you, Tony!"

"Bruce. Brucie. Bruce. He won't, and you know it. He is a part of you, and you like me, so he likes me too."

"I'm not-"

"_Bruce._ I love you. And these days without you were hell. I'm trying, ok? I'm trying to meet you halfway. If it were up to me, I'd destroy this damn field because you are not some sort of mindless beast to get locked away, but if you feel safer inside, then at least come live somewhere comfortable. With me."

"Ok."

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Tony?"

"Hm…?"

"I love you too."


End file.
